A Classic Love Story
by amaresu
Summary: All love stories start with a simple premise. It's where they go from there that makes things interesting. Ace/Hex. Spoilers for The Dark Husband are contained within.


**Boy meets Girl**

"Oh my God! I'm sorry." Hex hurried to help the girl he'd just run into pick up her folders. "I wasn't looking where I was going."

"Don't worry about it. I've had worse believe me." The girl smiled at him and took the folders from his hands. "I wasn't paying much attention either. It was as much my fault as yours."

"I'm Hex," he said as they stood up. "Nurse."

"McShane," she replied. "Human resources."

"Well then, I should get going." He ran his hand through his hair somewhat nervously.

"Yeah, me too." McShane started to walk away and then turned to call back to him, "See you around Nurse Hex."

**Boy falls madly in love with Girl**

"I love you." Hex stared at Ace in horror. The words had just popped out of his mouth. Not that he hadn't been thinking about them lately. Just not thinking about saying them to Ace. He didn't know what she'd do if he told her and now it looked as though he was about to find out. Too late to take them back now.

"What?" Ace yelled at him. Breathing a sigh of relief he realized she hadn't heard him over the music. With a smile he shook his head and gestured to the door leading out to the balcony.

**Boy realizes that Girl doesn't think of him that way**

They both breathed in deeply once they got outside. It seemed ten degrees cooler out on the balcony. Hex looked over at her, "It's impossible hear anything in there."

"No kidding. I've been trying to get your attention for the last fifteen minutes." Ace smiled at him as she leaned onto the railing.

"Really?" Trying to keep calm and not get his hopes up he asked, "What for?"

"There's this girl I want you to meet." Ace smiled at him again. This time like a couple of his friends had back home whenever they tried to set him up with anyone. "Her name is Chrissy and she's a nurse at the local hospital. You'll have lots to talk about. If you can find a place to hear yourself think anyway."

"Oh a girl." He tried to put some enthusiasm into his voice, but he wasn't sure he managed it. Ace looked at him with a look of confusion then shook her head and grabbed his hand.

"Yes, a girl." Her voice was teasing, but her hand gripped his hard enough to hurt. She started pulling him back to the party, "Come on before she gets tired of waiting for me to bring you back."

**Boy commiserates about unrequited love with the Doctor**

"I don't think it's anything personal." The Doctor said out of the blue. They'd been sitting at the bus station waiting for Ace to pick them up in silence for the last ten minutes.

Looking over at the Doctor he asked the obvious question, "What's not personal?"

"Ace and her inability to see you as anything other than a friend." Now the Doctor looked uncomfortable, but he'd started the conversation so he was going to finish it.

"How is that not personal?" Hex couldn't keep the note of despondence out of his voice when he asked the question. "I don't think you can get much more personal."

The Doctor fiddled with his umbrella for a couple of seconds before answering. "She's been through a lot. Lost a lot of people. People that she cared about. People that she loved. I've known Ace for a long time and I think she may be afraid to love anyone who'll stick around."

"Ace isn't afraid of anything." With a snort Hex slipped down lower into his seat.

"Of things she can effect and fight you're right Mr. Hex." The Doctor fished around in his pockets before pulling out a bag of jelly babies. Hex took some of the offered candy and they ate in silence before the Doctor continued. "When it comes to matters of the heart Ace is as vulnerable and scared as anybody."

Ace pulled up before Hex had a chance to reply. They ran out to her stolen car climbed in.

**Boy and Girl almost marry in order to save the Doctor's life**

Hex wasn't sure what he was doing. Correction he knew what he was doing. He was sitting and staring at the mountain range in the TARDIS, but the why was beyond him. Which was how Ace found him. She sat down next to him and handed over a cup of tea. "It's got lemon in it."

Nodding he took the cup and sipped it slowly, letting the heat spread through him. "Thanks."

They sat in silence, drinking their tea. Hex found himself asking the question before he'd really thought about it. "Would it have been so bad? Us being married?"

He didn't look at her. He didn't think he could stand to look at her. In the end he took her silence as all the answer he needed.

**Girl realizes Boy is avoiding her**

"You've been avoiding me." Ace said without preamble as she sat down at the table.

"No I haven't." Hex replied around a mouthful of toast.

Frowning at him like he was a puzzle she couldn't quite find all the pieces to she pulled his other piece of toast over to her side of the table. "Not actively. Passively. You've been passively avoiding me. I haven't seen you except in passing for the last three days. The TARDIS is big, but not that big."

Shrugging uncomfortably he swallowed his toast. "I've been busy. Besides I'm here now."

"Only because this is the only kitchen in the TARDIS that has the marmalade you like." Still frowning at him she took a bite out of his toast.

"Well, what did you expect?" He didn't wait for her to answer instead just getting up from the table and walking out of the room.

**Doctor breaks TARDIS and forces them to spend three days in early 21st century Cardiff**

With a quick look out of his room Hex grabbed his bag and made a beeline for the console room. Peaking around the door to make sure that Ace wasn't in there he quickly made his way through stopping only long enough to nod to the Doctor. He may not have been actively avoiding her before, but ever since that conversation in the kitchen he was. In reality he wasn't sure how much longer he was going to be able to stay on the TARDIS. He didn't want to leave, but he wasn't sure he could stay.

Hex closed the door behind him and checked his pocket to make sure he had his key then set off out of the alley they were parked in. There was a game on and a nice pub he could sit in to watch it. Maybe he'd be able to figure things out over a couple of beers.

**Boy gets attacked by monsters and has an unlikely rescue**

It had turned out to be more then a couple of beers. He hadn't gotten anything figured out, but the game had been good. With a bit of a stumble to his step Hex started to make his way back to the TARDIS. He turned down what he thought was the right alley, but clearly wasn't. This was easily determined by the lack of TARDIS and the presence of some sort of mole like creature with big teeth.

Only the fact that he tripped over a can left in the alley kept him from getting bitten by those big teeth. Stumbling backwards, which led him deeper into the alley to his horror, he attempted to talk his way out of being eaten. "Look I'm not very good tasting. Oh my God, I've had a lot of beers tonight and I'm a bit stringy. I'd be all tough and hard to chew."

With a groan he backed into something solid. A moment of continuing to try to move backwards told him that it wasn't solid enough to be a wall. Turning his head around he saw that he was pressed against someone who was far to pretty to be standing in an alley. And wearing clothes right out of WWII. The man smiled at him a pulled him to the side. "Now I don't think you'd be hard to chew at all."

"Save the flirting for later Jack." A well dressed man in a suite, also far to pretty to be standing in an alley, said from the entrance. On the other side of the creature with the big teeth. With a grin at Hex the man, Jack, pulled a bottle out of his pocket and sprayed the creature with it. It backed down the alley until it ran into the other man who sprayed it with something and within seconds they had the creature subdued and pushed into the back of a car Hex hadn't noticed before.

**Girl rescues Boy from his rescuers (and throws a mean right cross)**

"What was that?" Not the most intelligent thing to say, but Hex thought it was a good question all thing considered.

Jack smiled at him again and sauntered back down the alley. "We call them Weevils. They live in the sewers. Don't usually bother anyone, but this guy has been acting up lately."

"The question is what to do with you." That was from the other man. He was also walking down the alley. Hex suddenly realized that he may have been rescued from being eaten for something just as bad.

"How about nothing?" Hex desperately attempted to back down the alley only to run into something again. Unfortunately this time it was a wall. "Look I'll just go on home and go to sleep and pretend this was all a bad dream."

"Afraid I can't let you do that." Jack said. He didn't sound afraid or regretful. Instead he pulled something out of his coat. A pill by the looks of it.

"I'm not taking that." Hex tried to sound as defiant as he knew Ace would have been in this situation. He didn't think he succeeded. He tried to think of something else to say when he heard steps coming down the alley. Both men turned around at the sound as well.

"Stop intimidating my fiancé!" Ace yelled as she punched the other man, the one Hex didn't have a name for. The man went down and stayed down. Hex took the opportunity to hit Jack over the head with his bag and jump over the man laying in the alley. Ace grabbed his hand and together they ran out of the alley and down a number of streets.

**Boy and Girl discuss living arrangements**

"I don't think they followed us." Ace said as she sat down on a bus bench panting.

Hex sat beside her. "Yeah thanks for the rescue. How'd you find me?"

"I've been looking through every pub I could find for the past three hours. You had to choose one halfway across the city didn't you?" She leaned back and looked at him with a smile that could only be called amused.

Hex leaned back as well. Breathing deeply as he caught his breath. Looking at her out of the corner of his eye he asked the question he'd been wanting to ask since she appeared in the alley. "Fiancé?"

Ace turned to face him. "Well yeah. I'm not saying we should go out and get married right away."

"No, no." Hex hurried to assure her. He could barely keep his happiness contained. "Engagement is a big step. We can take it slowly."

"Right. Slowly." Ace nodded her head. "I mean I don't even know how we'll live together. What if you snore or have cold feet? We'll need to find a bigger room in the TARDIS for all of our stuff."

"Right. Bigger room." Smiling Hex leaned forward and kissed her.


End file.
